Because of his suspected role in kidnapping children from Ukraine, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest order for Russian President Putin.
The court’s verdict
According to the court, Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children from seized territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
On identical grounds, the court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian Federation’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, The Times of India reports.
ICC judges have issued the warrants, but it will be up to the international community to carry them out. There is no internal police force within the court to carry out arrests.
According to a U.N.-backed investigation released on Thursday, Russian aggression against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic death and torture in seized areas, may constitute war crimes and even crimes against humanity.
The extensive inquiry also discovered crimes perpetrated against Ukrainians on Russian soil, such as deported Ukrainian children prohibited from reconciling with their families, a “filtration” system intended to single out Ukrainians for custody and torture them under harsh confinement circumstances.
Complications in the trial
The possibility of any Russians being tried at the ICC is still far off because Moscow neither extradites its citizens nor recognized the court’s authority, as Dmitry Peskov stated earlier this week.
Although Ukraine is not a court member, it has granted the ICC jurisdiction over its territory. Since beginning an investigation a year ago, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has visited Ukraine four times.